1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to devices designed for grasping and removing lids from pots, said pots typically being of the culinary type. In particular, the invention relates to devices for grasping and stably removing the lid of a Dutch oven.
2. Statement of the Art
A quest for different methods of cooking meals in the outdoors has been undertaken recently with the increased interest in outdoor activities, such as camping. To outdoor enthusiasts, one of the most satisfying cooking methods is cooking in a Dutch oven. Dutch ovens are heavy cast iron kettles typically having a plurality of legs located in proximity to the bottom of the pot, a movable handle, and a lid having a handle constructed to receive cooking coals thereon.
In use, Dutch ovens are first filled with a food substance for cooking. Such food substances might range from a stew to a batter for bread to a standing rib roast. Some form of heating material is then prepared. Usually the heating material is charcoal, commercially manufactured charcoal briquettes, or heated wood. The heating material is prepared by establishing a fire and heating the charcoal, briquettes, or wood therein until the material is increased sufficiently in temperature to radiate heat therefrom. Once the heating material is sufficiently hot, it is placed about the bottom of the Dutch oven and in the recessed lid of the oven. The Dutch oven is maintained in contact with the heating material until the food substance inside the pot is done cooking. Depending upon the item being cooked, the cooking process may take from between less than an hour to several hours.
During the cooking process, it is frequently necessary to remove the lid from the Dutch oven to check the progress of the cooking process and to remove and replace the spent heating material on the lid so that the cooking process may continue. It is also necessary from time to time to remove the Dutch oven from the heating material on which it is positioned in order to replace the spent heating material so that cooking may continue. It is desirable that when the lid is removed from the Dutch oven, ashes and charcoal or wood do not fall into the food.
Many devices and methods have been improvised for removing the lid from a Dutch oven. In addition, a number of devices have been commercially developed for removing the lid. Both improvised and commercially developed devices have proven unsatisfactory in removing the lid because they are incapable of stabilizing the lid, and ashes and other heating material are too frequently dropped into the food as a result. By way of improvisation, people have used pliers, the claw of a hammer, and garden implements such as hoes, pitch forks, shovels, and/or the handles of such items. In turn, each of these improvised devices have proven to be inadequate in removing the lid of a Dutch oven. In particular, pliers, used to grasp the handle of the lid, tend to nick and mar the metal of the handle leading to a weakening in the iron. Pliers are also unstable because they only allow a two-point contact with the lid handle and ashes are therefore frequently dropped into the food. Similarly, using the claw of a hammer allows the lid to wobble thereby dropping ashes into the food. And, like pliers, the use of a hammer causes the user's hand grasping the hammer to get too close to the heating material on the lid making removal of the lid difficult and painful. The use of garden implements presents the same difficulties of instability and the potential for burning the handle of the implement.
Commercially developed devices for removing the lid of Dutch ovens include hooking devices and grasping devices. Some of these devices have extended handles on them in order to distance the user from the heating material on the lid of the Dutch oven. However, no device presents an adequate means for stabilizing the lid while it is being removed from the pot. Some devices have added a member, such as a peg, in proximity to the hook or grasping means in order to stabilize the lifting of the lid from the pot relative to the hooking or grasping means. However, these devices do not limit the lateral movement of the lid, and heating material is often dropped into the food.